Facing the Ultimate Call: Evacuate or Shelter?
Imagine a massive festival crowd enjoying a headline act when ominous storm clouds roll in or an emergency alert sounds. In that adrenaline-spiked moment, festival organisers must decide: do we evacuate everyone to safety off-site, or have them shelter-in-place until the danger passes? Choosing under stress is daunting – but the ability to make the right call quickly can save lives. This guide shares hard-earned wisdom from veteran festival producers on preparing for these scenarios. From major music festivals in the US and Europe to cultural events in Asia and Australia, the message is clear: decision speed comes from preparation.
Pre-Define Safe Shelter Zones and Evacuation Routes
Effective emergency action starts long before the event. Festival organisers should work with safety experts to pre-identify safe shelter zones on or near the venue, as well as clear evacuation routes. Knowing exactly where to send people in a crisis removes guesswork under pressure. For example, Lollapalooza 2012 in Chicago had pre-designated underground parking garages as emergency shelters (news.pollstar.com). When a severe thunderstorm threatened, concert promoters C3 Presents and city officials directed about 100,000 attendees to those garages well before the storm hit (news.pollstar.com) (weather.com). Because routes and shelters were mapped out in advance, tens of thousands evacuated calmly in under an hour and the event resumed after the storm (news.pollstar.com) (weather.com).
By contrast, poor planning can spell disaster: At TomorrowWorld 2015 in Georgia, heavy rain forced organisers to halt shuttle services, leaving thousands of festival-goers stranded with no clear way to leave. Many spent the night in mud or walking miles to find transportation (www.vice.com). This chaos underscored how critical it is to have backup evacuation plans and safe refuge areas for unexpected conditions.
Consider the nature of your festival site when choosing shelters. An urban festival might arrange nearby parking structures, subway stations, or arenas as refuge. A rural festival could designate sturdy farm buildings or ask attendees to shelter in their vehicles, which are surprisingly safe in lightning storms (the metal frame can disperse electricity). At Bonnaroo in Tennessee – a camping festival – organizers have advised fans during lightning to seek shelter in cars or buses rather than tents. The key is communicating ahead of time what constitutes a safe zone. Publish basic emergency shelter info in the festival programme or app, and ensure signage or staff can guide people there.
Just as crucial are the evacuation routes. Identify multiple exit points and pathways to prevent bottlenecks. Practice crowd modeling to estimate how quickly each route can clear people, and don’t exceed those capacities in your festival layout (www.festivalpro.com). For instance, if one gate can handle 5,000 people every 10 minutes, you may need six gates for a 30,000-person venue. Mark routes clearly on site maps and keep them free of obstructions. In 2019, Falls Festival in Lorne, Australia, pre-planned road-based evacuation for bushfire risk: when extreme conditions came, they calmly instructed ~9,000 campers to pack up and leave via the main road, avoiding chaos. Organizers messaged attendees on site:
“For those 9,000 currently staying onsite we ask you calmly pack up your campsite and return to your place of origin. There is no need to rush. Please ensure you have a sober driver.” (www.theguardian.com)
This clear, calm evacuation notice helped everyone depart safely before the threat arrived. By mapping exits and shelters in advance, you make an informed shelter-vs-evacuate decision faster and execute it smoothly.
Assign Authority for the Call and Plan the Message Cadence
One of the worst things in a crisis is indecision or confusion over who can pull the trigger on evacuation or shelter-in-place. Festival teams must assign a clear authority (or small team) with the power to make that call swiftly. Everyone – from security to stage managers – should know who has the final word if an emergency unfolds. In some cases it will be the festival director or head of security; at other events it might be a unified command involving local authorities. The important part is that it’s decided and communicated well in advance.
High-profile incidents have shown the cost of unclear authority. During the Astroworld 2021 tragedy in Houston, the formal plan specified only the executive producer and festival director as having authority to stop the show (edition.cnn.com). In practice, that centralized control meant front-line staff were hesitant to intervene as a crowd crush unfolded. By the time those two individuals realised the scale of the emergency, precious minutes were lost. The lesson: define the chain of command, but also empower key staff to call in an alert. If a stage manager, security chief, or on-site meteorologist sees imminent danger, they should be able to radio to Event Control and recommend an immediate stop while higher-ups confer. It’s better to pause and sort out a false alarm than to delay during a real emergency.
Once the decision is made, consistent messaging is the next challenge. Advance planning should include message templates and a “cadence” for updates. Establish who will communicate to attendees (often an MC or a pre-recorded announcement) and how often updates will be given. For example, if you decide to shelter-in-place due to a tornado warning, you might announce: “Attention: Due to approaching severe weather, please shelter immediately in the nearest solid structure or designated safe area. We will update you in 10 minutes. (Time stamp: 5:40 PM).” Then, at the promised time or sooner, update the crowd even if there’s no change: e.g., “As of 5:50 PM, the storm is still in the area. Please remain in shelter. Next update at 6:00 PM.” This cadence of time-stamped updates reassures attendees that you’re actively monitoring the situation, and it prevents rumors. It also imposes discipline on the organisers to continually reevaluate conditions.
All public communications should be pre-authorized and coordinated. Mixed messages can cause panic – imagine security staff telling people to evacuate on the ground while a stage MC is saying “stay put.” Avoid that through clear hierarchy and communication channels. Use multiple channels to reach the crowd: stage PA systems, video screens, text alerts, mobile app push notifications, and social media. Modern ticketing platforms such as Ticket Fairy even allow organisers to send instant emergency notifications to all ticket holders’ phones – a valuable tool to ensure no one misses the message. In Chicago, Lollapalooza’s 2012 team did this expertly: stage announcements, jumbotron messages, and social media posts all told fans where to go as the evacuation began (news.pollstar.com) (news.pollstar.com). In 2015, Lollapalooza even had a special emergency webpage with a weather radar and shelter information ready (weather.com). This unified messaging prevented confusion and helped people exit in an orderly way.
Train MCs and Staff to Communicate Calmly (Use Timestamps!)
The tone of communication during an emergency can deeply influence crowd behavior. Training your MCs, stage hosts, and key staff to deliver calm, clear instructions is a must. Panic is contagious; a panicked-sounding announcer can unintentionally spread fear. Instead, festival emergency announcements should use a steady, controlled voice and give people concrete, simple steps to follow.
Include time stamps in announcements – literally tell the crowd what the current time is and when the next update will come, as in the earlier example. Providing the time (“as of now…”) grounds the message in reality and combats misinformation (attendees won’t as easily fall for rumors if they just heard an official update at a known time). It also subtly signals that organisers are on top of the issue at that exact moment. Many experienced festival MCs rehearse scripts for various scenarios so they’re not caught off guard. For instance, a pre-written message for a fire might be: “Ladies and gentlemen, at this time (8:47 PM) we need to direct everyone to calmly proceed to the nearest exit due to an incident. Our staff are here to guide you. Please walk, do not run. We will provide more information shortly.” The act of training and drilling these announcements means the person on the mic won’t freeze up or ramble when it counts.
Non-verbal communication matters too. If you have video screens, have a simple emergency slide ready (e.g. “Lightning in area – seek shelter now” in bold text) to reinforce spoken announcements. Ensure the font is large and colors high-contrast for visibility. If the power is out or sound systems fail, train staff to use megaphones or even old-fashioned loud-hailers as backup. At one European festival, when a main stage power loss hit during a storm, crew members literally shouted instructions with megaphones – because they had planned for that contingency with backup gear.
Another tip: language and tone should be respectful and encouraging, not overly stern. People are more likely to follow instructions if they trust the speaker. An MC who sounds caring (“We want everyone safe, so please help each other and move indoors calmly”) will get better compliance than one who barks orders aggressively. Real-case studies bear this out – Falls Festival’s polite but firm evacuation request (“no need to rush…please ensure you have a sober driver”) kept folks calm (www.theguardian.com), whereas events where communication was chaotic saw more distress. Remember, in the moment festival-goers will look to the voice on the speakers for guidance – be the voice of composed leadership.
Drill Both Scenarios with Agencies and Stakeholders
Writing plans and training staff are vital, but nothing tests readiness like a realistic drill. Large-scale festivals should conduct emergency exercises for both evacuation and shelter-in-place scenarios, ideally in partnership with local agencies. In Hong Kong, for example, police and fire departments teamed up with the AIA Carnival event organisers to run a multi-agency emergency drill in 2025 (www.thestandard.com.hk). They simulated a fire and a suspicious object during the event, forcing a rapid decision to evacuate. Over 100 personnel took part, and the drill helped strengthen cooperation between government and festival teams (www.thestandard.com.hk). This kind of practice identifies snags in the plan before a real crisis hits.
For a music festival, you might organize a tabletop exercise with scenarios like “severe weather impending”, “wildfire spotted nearby”, or “security threat at Gate 2”. Include local law enforcement, emergency medical services, fire brigade, and even meteorologists if weather is a big risk. Walk through who contacts whom, who gives the evacuation order, how the public address message is delivered, where attendees actually go, and how long it all takes. If possible, follow up with a partial drill on-site: for instance, have staff practice directing an empty venue to evacuate, or test the shelter plan with a subset of volunteers. Some UK festivals conduct small-scale nighttime drills with staff during pre-show setup, where an announcement is made and everyone must move to a shelter point, just to observe movement flow and timing.
Importantly, drills should also cover the aftermath and contingencies. What if half the attendees don’t hear the announcement initially – do you have roving staff with megaphones? If an exit is blocked, is there an alternate route? If people must shelter for hours (say, during a lightning storm or police incident), how will you get water or information to them? By discussing and testing these details, you’ll uncover gaps in resources or procedures. Coordinate with local agencies on these exercises; they can offer expert perspective and will be the ones assisting in a real emergency. Building a rapport with officials beforehand also means that when you call them on festival day (“We need to evacuate now”), everyone’s already on the same page and trusts each other’s judgment.
Speed Through Preparation: Making the Right Call Under Stress
In a crisis at a festival, every second counts. The ability to make a speedy, sound decision – whether to evacuate or shelter-in-place – comes directly from preparation. When festival teams have predefined plans, practiced them, and assigned clear roles, they don’t need to debate endlessly as minutes tick away. The scenarios may vary (a fast-approaching storm, an active threat, a structural failure, etc.), but a prepared team will recognize the trigger points for each action.
Look at success stories: Lollapalooza organizers monitored weather in real-time and, seeing a thunderstorm racing in, made the evacuation call while the sky was still clear (weather.com). Fans later remarked how unexpected it was – but that early action got tens of thousands to safety in time, and the storm barely grazed the park (weather.com). On the other hand, the tragic stage collapse at Pukkelpop 2011 in Belgium showed what can happen if evacuation comes too late. There, a sudden “mini-hurricane” storm hit the festival and collapsed structures, killing five people and injuring 140 (www.theguardian.com). The organizers cancelled the event and evacuated 60,000 shocked attendees only after the damage was done (www.theguardian.com). It was a stark reminder that waiting until a crisis is fully apparent may be too late – often you must anticipate and act on the warning signs based on your plan.
Thus, empower your team to act decisively. Use intelligence like weather radar, security assessments, and on-the-ground reports to inform the decision. If you’ve drilled it and everyone knows their part, pulling the trigger becomes a reflex. When the real moment arrives – dark clouds overhead or an urgent call from police – your festival’s emergency response team will already know who decides, what to say, and where people go. That confidence under stress only comes from doing the homework beforehand.
Finally, remember the human factor: empathy and leadership. Festival-goers are not just a crowd, they’re people who will be anxious in an emergency. A prepared festival team that handles an evacuation or shelter-in-place with calm professionalism can actually turn a scary situation into a story of trust and care. Attendees will recall how well it was handled, not just the disruption itself. In one instance, an EDM festival’s quick, orderly evacuation ahead of a lightning storm led to applause for the staff once everyone was safe, because fans recognized the competence on display. That’s the ideal outcome when things go wrong: attendees still feel safe and valued.
In summary: whether facing nature’s fury or man-made danger, choosing to shelter or evacuate a festival crowd under duress is never easy. But with solid preparation – predefined safe zones, clear authority and comms, trained announcers, and practiced drills – a festival producer can make that tough call swiftly and confidently. It’s all about planning for the worst while hoping for the best. As the saying goes, “the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle.” Prepare thoroughly, and may you never need to put those emergency plans into action. But if you do, you’ll be ready.
Key Takeaways
- Plan Ahead for Both Options: Develop an Emergency Action Plan that covers both evacuation and shelter-in-place scenarios. Pre-select safe shelter locations and map out multiple evacuation routes before the festival begins.
- Clear Decision Authority: Designate who has the power to halt performances and initiate an evacuation or shelter order. Make sure all staff know the chain of command, and empower trained personnel to raise alarms quickly.
- Communicate Calmly and Consistently: Prepare scripted announcements for emergencies. Train MCs and staff to deliver instructions in a calm, clear manner with time stamps and specific guidance. Use all available channels (PA, screens, apps, SMS) for unified messaging.
- Practice with Teams and Agencies: Conduct drills and tabletop exercises for various emergency scenarios. Involve local police, fire, and medical services in practicing coordinated responses. Testing your plans reveals weaknesses and builds confidence.
- Act Fast – Don’t Wait for Certainty: In a developing crisis, a prompt decision (even if it disrupts the event) is better than waiting until a situation deteriorates. Use real-time information and your training to make the call. Preparation enables speed when every second counts.
27th September 2025